Concrete is the most wonderful thing. It can be troweled on and then carved into anything imaginable. Today we went all out to cover as much of the tree as we could. We mixed and troweled on about three cubic yards of concrete mud. We let the magic mix set just enough so that our carving tools didn't pull it off the galvanized mesh. We then set about making it look like a gnarly old tree. Once painted, few will believe it is concrete. A ride operator's booth never looked so fun!
Big goal met
It was a busy day in the shop as we worked on the PNE project. Today's goal was to attach the galvanized mesh and also create and mount the sign to ready the piece for the sculpted concrete tomorrow. With the entire crew pulling together we made it with seconds to spare.
The bug has landed
With the welding finished on the operator's booth and ride sign it was time to 'fly' the iron flutterbye into place and start on the application of the galvanized lath. As we bolted the flutterbye into place the immense size of the piece became readily apparent. This is going to be a n amazing feature once we do the sculpting and painting! With the giant mechanical bug in place we determined the scale of the leaves. We plasma cut the pieces and then welded the stems into the center. To form the leaves we used an anvil and hammer. Peter was more than happy to help out as he loves to use the anvil at every opportunity. (To read the story of Peter and the anvil click here)
